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cPort Credit Union's College Aspirations Program Brings Elementary Students to Bowdoin

Story posted April 07, 2011

Two-dozen elementary school students from Portland and Augusta visited the College April 6 for an early taste of higher education and campus life.

Volunteer docent Joan Llorente passes around a piece of wolf fur during a tour of the Arctic Museum.

The students each earned a College Aspirations Scholarship awarded by cPort Credit Union through a partnership it established with Maine College Circle, a non-profit organization run by Bob Stuart '77 and supported by many Bowdoin alumni.

cPort Credit Union’s program in Portland focuses on the Riverton School with its diverse and economically challenged student body. All four elementary schools in Augusta participate. Each year, cPort Credit awards College Aspirations Scholarships of $100 to young and aspiring elementary school students in Portland and Augusta.

“The program is designed to help elementary school students in Portland and Augusta, and throughout Maine build early aspirations for higher education,” says Stuart, Maine College Circle's director. “Much of Maine College Circle's nonprofit effort is focused on reaching younger students in rural Maine communities.”

Stuart says that over the past 18 years, Maine College Circle has reached students in 105 Maine communities. Participating students have been recognized for their efforts on their scholarship application and in their work in school. Some are top performing students; many just have those hopes for the future.

While on campus, the students spoke with Bowdoin students about life in college, took a tour with Bowdoin education student volunteers and visited the Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum.